Roads lose money.

I want to flag one more thing in Sinoski’s piece from the Sun. Here’s a point that she absolutely nails:

[Translink spokesguy Ken] Hardie said the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines already cover their costs, so TransLink is not providing a net subsidy. But he said transit in general normally runs at a loss because of high operating costs. On all modes of service, TransLink recovers only about 45 per cent of its operating costs at the fare box.

Roads are also money losers. For example, motorists on Kingsway pay no user fees, but TransLink pays Burnaby $13,000 per lane-kilometre to maintain the road.

Buses lose money–just like roads. The existing Skytrains, though, pay for themselves. So when people start bleating about how much public transit in the Lower Mainland costs, and about how congestion pricing or vehicle levies would be the greatest injustices since the Spanish Inquisition, remember that those levies only get drivers a little closer to actually paying for the transportation infrastructure they use. Like Skytrain riders already do.